Mid-Michigan jobs keep disappearing

By MARK RANZENBERGER/@ranzenberger

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The number of jobs in mid-Michigan continued to fall year-over-year during March, according to an analysis of employment figures compiled by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

Nearly 300 jobs disappeared across the four-county region of Clare, Gratiot, Isabella and Montcalm between March 2012 and last month, according to the analysis. But the unemployment rates fell regionwide and in three of the four counties.

That’s because as the jobs disappeared, the number of people seeking jobs fell even more. The four-county labor force, defined as those working or seeking work, fell by nearly 1,350 people.

From March 2012 to March 2013, labor force reductions were posted in 12 of the 17 regions tracked by the department, according to a statement. But state job-watchers were seeing some improvement in the jobless picture over last winter.

“Local area unemployment rates have trended downward from January to March, while area employment levels have risen,” said Michael Williams, acting director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information & Strategic Initiatives. “Over-the-year jobless rate declines in nearly all of Michigan’s local areas were comparable to the national jobless rate reduction.”

In the four-county region, the total unemployment rate in March was 9 percent. That’s down from 9.5 percent in February and 10 percent in March 2012. Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was 8.8 percent.

• In Clare County, the March unemployment rate was 12.3 percent, down from 13 percent in February and 13.3 percent the year before.

• In Montcalm County, March’s unemployment rate was 10.8 percent, down from 11.7 percent in February and 12.1 percent in the same month of 2012.

• Gratiot County saw its unemployment rate fall to 9.3 percent, a decline from a revised number of 9.9 percent in February and 10.2 percent the year before.

• Isabella County’s unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in March, unchanged from February and down from 7.4 percent in March 2012. Isabella County was one of only two Michigan counties – the Upper Peninsula’s Houghton County was the other – that did not see an unemployment rate decline between February and March 2013.

The monthly survey of employers indicated that professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality services were the only sectors to record notable job growth over the month. Employment in trade, transportation and utilities fell, and the state’s remaining industry sectors were either flat or posted minor gains.

Isabella County’s stagnant 6.5 percent unemployment rate meant it fell to No. 9 on the list of counties ranked by unemployment. Tech- and education-heavy Washtenaw County again showed the state’s lowest unemployment rate at 5.1 percent, followed by Barry, Kent, Clinton, Ottawa, Eaton, Kalamazoo and Menominee counties. Calhoun County rounded out the top 10.

Forty-one of the 83 counties in the state were suffering double-digit unemployment in March. Michigan’s highest countywide unemployment rate was in tourism-dependent Mackinac County, which reported a 22.5 percent unemployment rate in March. That was the only Michigan county with unemployment higher than 20 percent.

Mark Ranzenberger is online editor of TheMorningSun.com. He can be reached at 989-779-6042.